I noticed a very strange behaviour of the AMD graphics driver since updating to 14.2 Beta. I am using an AMD FX 6300 CPU @stock settings and a brand new MSI R7 260X 2GB Graphics Card.

Since installing the 14.2 beta I occour to have problems with flash videoplayback using Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Starting a flash Video via those two browsers brings up the risk to run into a blue Screen and a System Crash following the error description:

0x0000007e - obviously caused by amdkmpag.sys.

This happens randomly and not on every try playing flash video. The funny thing is that I can max out load on the CPU and GPU without problems playing games, using DAWs or the typical working stuff - for hours - even Benchmarks. Only starting Flash Videos run me into the risk of a system crash followed by the discribed BSOD.

Anybody else of you having the same issue using Catalyst 14.2? Is this a driver issue or can this considered to be a hardware-problem?

I don't want to downgrade drivers as the official 13.12 driver has also issues with te R7 series. I made RMA with my new card three times because the 13.12 causes image errors when quitting games or ending the use of two monitors so enlarge the desktop.

I aleady filled in the issue form for Beta Drivers. I just wanted to ask if any of you have the same issues and if you have found some workarounds.

Ok - and how does that solve the problem? Don't get me wrong....but I want to discuss solutions that lead to usage without sacrifice.

Do you have the same issues?

Firefox shows these symptoms too - WITH latest Flash Player installed and by using the HTML5 player of youtube. As I found out, it is not only related to Video Playback but also to generel hardware acceleration used in internet browsers. Switching back to 14.1 seems to solve the issue - therefore 14.1 has some issues with artifacts in games after switching severel times from desktop to full screen game. Therefore also not really useful driver.

Problem so seems to be browser hardware accel. in general. We need to collect our experiences iin order to make AMD hurry to fix the current issue. Therefore I hope that people with the described issue report here and on the issue form to make AMD fix it asap.

And still the questions: Any workarounds without sacrificing the usage of software?

Hmmm...am not having problems with this driver. The driver is fine. Personal choice decision is NOT to use Google products unless absolutely necessary (youtube) or the unnecessary Windows 8 gimmicky attempt to transform how we use a PC. Try turning browser hardware acceleration...off OR use the 13.12 WHQL.

The common fix for the issues you described is try turning off hardware acceleration first...then if its not fixed, at least you have eliminated the most common error. Firefox, IE both have the same option.

13.12 is also not working for me as it has got issues with the R7 260X as well. I have testsd three different cards from different manufacturers (Power Color, Gigabyte MSI) and all three of them hat massive issues with Catalyst 13.12 as well - an all of them EXACTLY the same issues (plus adding: all of these three tested cards had all the identic issues with 14.2)

With 13.12 the R9 260X causes screen corruptions (artifacts - look likt black runs all over the screen for 10-15 seconds) after quitting a fullscreen-application like a game or after ending the use of two displays (Enlarge Desktop to two screens). It also causes random system crashes - but no blue screens after all. The screen turns randomly to several strange colors. The machine then restarts itself without further notice.

The issue does not come up with a Radeon 7770 using 13.12. The problem ist only showing up with the R7 260X using the 13.12 Catalyst PLUS the described Issues with 14.2. Only 14.1 seems to work more or less stable.

I can definetely eliminate other hardware/software issues as other cards (not the R7 260X) are working correctly in my system and the fact that different R7 260X (made three RMAs!!) are behaving in the same way as discribed.

So in my opinion "not to use Chrome" or "not to use hardware accelleration in browsers" is not a solutuion. It's a sacrifice of features. Therefore there must be another fix - a fix that is provided by AMD.

But am I right saying: These described problems are software issues - not hardware issues and are spread to many of you as well?!! That is the important question for me to be answered as well.

I tried different cards from differend manufacturers as I mentioned. So there is definetely no issue with the card itself - as I am now using a MSI model. Power Color and Gigabyte were the cards I gave back to my hardware dealer. So I acctually did what you were suggesting.

@guy66 This ist indeed worth a try. I will do so an report back asap. Thank you.

I'm experiencing the almost exact same BSODs with Catalyst 14.2 Beta 1.3 as you, bono35. Except the driver that causes the BSOD is not amdkmpag.sys but amdkmdag.sys. At first I thought my card is broken because the first times my system just plain froze and didn't react at all, I had to do a cold restart but then it startet showing BSODs so I read the dump file and it was clear that the beta driver is causing my system to crash. I'm running a Gigabyte R9 290 WindForce 3X OC. The crashes happen almost exclusively when I try to watch a flash video using Waterfox (it's a Firefox 64 bit version) and also when the system was idle sometime, i.e. when I opened Windows Explorer or right clicking on the desktop. Had (almost) no problems whatsoever in games (one crash playing Metro LL during last cutscene and one playing Thief) or benchmarks or even stresstests, so I know it can't be my card. I read in some forums that cranking up the voltage to a constant rate since the R9s do tune it down when they're idle helps, so I tried. And in fact it did help a little. The BSODs stopped or at least weren't not that frequent anymore but the micro freezes started when using Waterfox but also when just using Windows Explorer for example. So I turned off hardware acceleration. Didn't help at all. I then deleted the driver and ran [url="http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/display_driver_uninstaller_download.html"]Display Driver Uninstaller[/url] just to be sure that everything was clean. After that I installed Catalyst 13.12 and the system ran like a charm again. It ran without problems with the driver it was shipped with, too.In conclusion it has to be Catalyst 14.2 Beta that causes these problems.I hope they'll have solved this problem soon. It's very annoying and can't be good for your system

The registry entry noted above deals with the memory used for the allocation of video drivers. If the size of Session Pool is pre-defined, it limits the active session from using excessive memory, and if it does, the session crashes, with a stop message. To avoid such inconvenience you are suggested to elevate the value of SessionPoolSize.Double click this value to ModifyChange the Base, from Hexadecimal to DecimalIn the Value data field, change the value to 48 (making it 48MB)Click OK to save your changes

First I want to thank you all for your replys. Good to know that I am not the only one havin issues with the current Catalyst drivers.

To keep ypu updated: I decided to make a fresh installaion of Windows 8.1. I also installed 14.2 Beta right away. By now, after the fresh install on a brand new Crucial M500 SSD, I don't experience any kinds of BSODs watching Flash or HTML5 anymore - thanks heaven. Therefore I guess that the multiple driver changing on my previous installation caused the issue for my system - even if I always removed previous drivers completely. Not sure what exactely caused it, but it now doesn't crash anymore at least.

But now, after gaming for a while, I am experiencing a new issue. From time to time, only in game, artifacts are shown. These artifacts are not all over the screen but ony on the same particular location on the middle left of the screen. Artifacts look like blocks. If these artifacts show up (noticed them expecially playing Grid 2 and Guild Wars 2) they are gone after I switched to another application using alt-tab and back into the game. This issue is not reproducable and seem to occur randomly. As I have only uses 14.2 after the fresh install I can only speak of this particular driver. And no: It can't be a temperature issue as the max temprature playing games of the card is 60 degrees Celsius playing Grid 2 in 1080p with settings high.

Anyone else around here has similar issues? I am pretty sure this is NOT the card making problems here as it is running very well most of the time. Even the artifacts on ending desktop-enlargement are mostly gone with the 14.2 driver.

@Kapitan83: I would likt to go with 13.12 but using 13.12 drivers causes massive artifacts when quitting games or ending eyefinity-setups/desktop enlargements and ramdom crashes on my 260X. These issues are not there with 14.2.

@ucouldbrong: I forgot to mention: The drivr supplied with my actual MSI card was Catalyst 13.12 which causes the described issues...and yes - actually I am really thinking of changing to another card - or I simply have to wait for AMD releasing new stable drivers.